(Newser)
–
So much for reliable Wikipedia content. A high-powered British PR firm routinely rewrites Wikipedia content relating to its clients, reports the Independent. Bell Pottinger made hundreds of changes in Wiki entries over the last year, either adding positive comments or deleting negative ones about clients. At least ten contributing writer accounts linked to the firm have been suspended by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who blasted the firm's "ethical blindness," reports the Financial Times. Undercover reporters for the British Bureau of Investigative Journalism posing as clients were told by representatives of the PR firms that "sorting" Wikipedia entries is part of the service the company offers, notes the newspaper.

Changes included removal of mention of criminal convictions and arrests, modifications in details of business dealings, and the addition of long positive paragraphs about Bell Pottinger clients. Some of the changes were traced to a Wikipedia writer called "Biggleswiki," and an IP address was tracked to the PR firm. A Bell Pottinger spokesman told the Independent that the firm has "never done anything illegal," and has refused to include information in Wiki entries that isn't true. Said Wales: "I am astonished at the ethical blindness of Bell Pottinger's reaction. That their strongest response is they didn't break the law tells a lot about their view of the world." Wikipedia struggles to balance access by volunteer writers functioning on an honor system with safeguards to keep biased or inaccurate information from the massive user-generated online encyclopedia. Wikipedia guidelines prohibit entries by people with a conflict of interest in a topic.

I'm not so sure they have done nothing illegal. In the US a PR Firm (Reverb) settled with the FTC, because they were posting fake reviews on mobile app sites impersonating the identity of your average consumer without disclosing their affiliation. Wikipedia seems like an identical case to me, where firms like this are posing as anonymous volunteer contributors, despite Wikipedia's policies about disclosing your conflict of interest. This is why companies need to hire an expert that they can trust to behave ethically and know the rules of engagement. -David King @David44357:disqus David44357@gmail.com

This is an exact example of what I wrote in a post a week ago about these low life "spin firms" rewriting history to make their clients steamy piles of shit smell like roses. "One of the techniques specifically mentioned by Collins was using search engine optimization to alter Google results.[21] He said: "And where we want to get to – and this will take time, this is where David's team are magical – is you get to the point where even if they type in 'Uzbek child labour' or 'Uzbek human rights violation', some of the first results that come up are sites talking about what you guys are doing to address and improve that, not just the critical voices saying how terrible this all is.".[20]" Whitewashing the truth about their scum clients until the masses are suitably brainwashed and the truth is slowly forgotten. Not dissimilar to countries rewriting history to their advantage. And you can call me..............Mr Joshua